Yet
again, the United States, has experienced a mass killing spree in a
school. This time the victims were very young children mowed down by
semi-automatic weapons fire. These kinds of atrocities have been
occurring with such regularity, that they now seem the rule more than
the exception. The anatomy of these killing sprees has also become
routine. The loner apparently looking to go out in a blaze of glory
finally turns the gun on himself. Then the media frenzy begins and
the story is milked from every possible angle to achieve the maximum
sensational effects: the agonized survivors wringing their hands and
asking the unanswerable question—why?; media interviewers with
microphone in your face asking “how you feel about all this”; the
search for family and acquaintances of the perpetrator to delve into
his [so far always a male] background and psychology; interviews with
scholars and pundits analyzing what's wrong with our society that we
have such regular and horrendous atrocities. The post-mortem goes on
and on until the viewing public finally tires of it and moves on to
some other sensational event, waiting for the next mass killing
spree, and so on.
Here
in Osaka a few years ago there was a similar mass killing at an
elementary school. It quite shocked the Japanese people to the core
considering that Japan is considered one of the safest countries in
the world. At
10:15 in the morning of June 8, 2001, 37-year-old former janitor
Mamoru Takuma entered
the school armed with a kitchen knife and began stabbing numerous
school children and teachers. He killed eight children, mostly
between the ages of seven and eight, and seriously wounded thirteen
other children and two teachers.
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| training in the use of sasumata |
Authorities
acted swiftly and decisively setting up a program of self-defense to
train teachers to handle such incidents should they occur again. The
program included the use of “tools” to be used in fending off an
armed attacker. In the traditional Japanese cultural ethos, this
would be a collective effort by as many teachers as possible working
together to fend of the attacker, buying time, until the police can
be notified and arrive on the scene.
Japan
has one of the strictest gun control regimes in the world. So,
fortunately, from a certain point of view, mass killers aren't likely
to use even a hand gun, let alone semi-automatic weapons in Japan.
Their weapon of choice is usually a knife, far less deadly in terms
of numbers of dead, and more easily subdued by a determined defense
and restraint effort by cooperating trained people.
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| sasumata |
The
main tools used in over 90% of public schools throughout the country are a
two-pronged restraining tool called a "sasumata" and pepper spray. They are kept in plain
sight and convenient to reach and grab by trained and rehearsed
staff. They are actually relatively inconspicuous and seem to blend
into the decor of the classroom and halls.
Granted
the United States has a far more serious and intractable problem with
school security than Japan. The problem is directly related to the
easy access to powerful weaponry designed more for the battlefield
than for sport. I recently made a somewhat Swiftian proposal to the
effect that teachers may need to be armed to protect their young
charges. But one could easily imagine a pitched shootout of the OK
corral variety occurring in a second grade classroom with the
terrorized children cowering under their desks.
Still,
there is precedent and a model for “meaningful” action in
response to mass killing of elementary students in Japan. Surely, US
authorities could bang their heads together and come up with
something better than locking the barn door after the horse has escaped. And
something needs desperately to be done about the easy access to
weapons of mass destruction.
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